The Big Black Comedy Show – Volume Four

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Concert: C

 

 

The Big Black Comedy Show – Volume Four (2005) is hosted this time by former guest comic Ralphie May and is even less political and daring than such reductions in the third volume.  However, the collection of guest comics including Joe Torry, Shenika, Tommy Chunn, Alex Thomas, Jay Phillips and Joe Clair are only so effective in their somewhat politically incorrect mode.  This time, the humor is too one-note for its own good and though the type and style are consistent, it falls flat surprisingly in every case.

 

The show runs over 90 minutes and continues Fox’s revival of the Key label for DVD, and though it has not had some huge boom in the name yet, though that is coming.  As for the humor, there are those who obviously will just fall over laughing at this because this is the brand and approach they enjoy best.  For those who like “organic” sex jokes all the time with obvious “this is reality, man” humor, this will be there disc.  Others should apply to the older volumes.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1/16 X 9 image looks better than the previous 1.78 third volume, sometimes in a way where you can see more detail than usual for a digital shoot.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo no serious surround information, but is clear enough as a recent recording to hear al the jokes.  There are again no extras and the brief interviews in between some of the stand-up comedy are less than the last volume.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo